Mouse smoothes out troublesome hand tremors

FOR people with hand tremors, using a computer mouse can be arduous, or downright impossible. IBM believes it has a solution that will allow millions of people with this problem to use a computer normally.

Jim Levine, a researcher at IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center in New York, has invented a mouse adapter that filters out the "noise" produced by shaky hand movements. Compatible with any computer, the adapter has a small microprocessor that digitally smoothes the motion data from the mouse. In effect, it suppresses rapid tremor oscillations, while leaving the slow, steady progress toward the user's goal.

Levine first thought of developing his "assistive mouse adapter" when he noticed his uncle, who has Parkinson's disease, struggling to use a mouse. And, while people often associate hand tremors with Parkinson's, a far more common cause is a genetic disorder known as "essential tremor", which affects as many as ...

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